Jetta TDI or Prius?
 

Okay guys, I claim excuse on the fact that until two months ago, I had not had a car in three years! I am still catching up on all of this!

I found this site when I wondered how the Jetta TDi compared to the Prius. I guess that I need to find a "Dust to Dust" discussion here.

Okay guys, I claim excuse on the fact that until two months ago, I had not had a car in three years! I am still catching up on all of this!

I found this site when I wondered how the Jetta TDi compared to the Prius. I guess that I need to find a "Dust to Dust" discussion here.

What sort of driving do you want to do with it ?

Oh boy, sorry this took so long! From what I understand, the Jetta does better on the highway and the Prius is much better in the city. Also, I read that the Jetta requires periodic hard driving to blow the carbon out of the turbo. I do more city driving than I would like and my highway driving includes some hills that are too big to coast down, so it sounds like the Prius would suit me better.

How correct am I? :)

(Moved the Prius/Jetta discussion to a new thread, hope you don't mind.)

For city driving the Prius would be your better choice.

regards
Mech

Yep. Highway is the only place the TDI has a chance of matching the Prius. Anything else and the Prius will be better.

Hybrid: Reality - Article - RoadandTrack.com

Quick summary: in ALL the tests, highway cruise included, the Prius beat the Golf TDI's mileage. Highway was the closest, with Prius at 57 mpg and the TDI at 53.

If you get (a new) one with a diesel particulate filter, it needs to be able to run for some extended time once in a while to clean out the DPF.
It doesn't need to be driven particularly hard during that DPF-cleaning though.

Modern diesels with DPF and what not are getting too complex and can have serious issues.
Mine certainly isn't the only one, and VW / Audi hasn't been spared either.

Soot buildup in the EGR-ducts, EGR-cooler and control valves is just one issue.

Sounds like the Prius is for you.


I think I'll be going with CNG - possibly even a hybrid converted to CNG.

Get an older VW and run it with 100% renewable biodiesel, the Prius still uses some gasoline.

let me just tell you...

prius, prius, prius.

i just got rid of a tdi and i can honestly say that i probably tried about 100% harder at obtaining good mileage than the average soccer mom who drives a prius and "she" still beat me! very frustrating.

I'll toss in a vote for the TDI, or at least one that hasn't been monkeywrenched as much by regulations. My little brother loved his hybrid, right up until he needed a new battery pack, then after a little figuring, it turned out that he'd have been better off, financially, with a purely gas powered car.
Sure, there's a trade-off for everything, but I'd personally wait until batteries are reliable enough for the manufacturers to provide a longer warranty for 'em.

I won't put down early adopters, though. They're the whole reason anything new ends up marketable, from cars to computers, and everything else that has room for improvement.

spacer - out of curiosity, which hybrid did your brother have?

SwamiSalami, thank you for confiding with us that you let a soccer mom beat you. I will treat your secret with the utmost respect! :D

I have been trying to find numbers on the Prius since before I found this site. According to HowStuffWorks, Prius batteries have come down from $5,500 to $2,400 (1) HSW does not date their articles, but their most recent source is June 25, 2009, so that is a reduction of 56% in nine years, or 6% a year. They also stated that "Honda has cut its battery replacement price from $3,400 to $1,968." (2) In an article about Lithium-ion batteries, Green Car Report stated "the rate of performance increase has averaged 6 to 8 percent a year."

I finally found my numbers! "Toyota's out-of-warranty battery replacement rate has plummeted from about 1 percent for the first generation Prius to 0.003 percent for the second generation." (2)

I am also curious which hybrid the brother had. People have very different experiences with the same make and model depending on their attitudes, driving habits, and maintenance. Green Car Reports included the Honda CR-Z and Insight in "Five New 2012 Hybrid Cars To Consider Steering Clear Of." (4) One of the others is a BMW and two are Lexus...es.

(1) HowStuffWorks "Hybrid Battery Replacement Cost"

(2) HowStuffWorks "5 Ways Hybrid Battery Packs are Being Improved"

(3) How Much And How Fast Will Electric-Car Battery Costs Fall?

(4) Five New 2012 Hybrid Cars To Consider Steering Clear Of

What kind of expense do you have in 4-6 years when the Toyota's batteries decide to take a dump? Shouldn't you figure that into the running cost? Pretty hard to quibble over 5 mpg when you have an expensive battery pack hanging over your head like the sword of Damocles. IMO there is a moral problem with recycling these corrosive materials.

I like the styling of the Prius but I can't see one in my future as I keep cars a long time.

Varn: the materials are recycled. There is zero problem with these packs going into landfill - Toyota will pay a bounty for old battery packs. Also, the 2nd+ gen Prius packs are extremely reliable (see post #14). (1st gen Hondas, not so much.)

Also, the 4-6 years would depend on how much driving is done, because they are warrantied for 8-10 years and 100,000-150,000 miles. I can find the link if you insist, but Toyota states that they recycle every component of their batteries.

Honestly, I think that more Jetta owners have needed to replace their turbos, or have at least been told so by their dealers.